Come on over to the Beta server! We have cookies!

[Kaiser Tarantula]

Okay folks.  NC's shut down registrations, shut down purchasing paragon points, and shut down VIP account upgrades.  The ability to upgrade from free to premium is gone, so if you didn't get points before the closure notice, and thus, if you didn't have a piece of content unlocked, it's forever gone to you now.

That sucks.

But it doesn't have to.

The CoH Beta server is still up and running.  It's got I24, the "Fix Everything" update.  Blasters are viable here (in fact, they're downright scary), with new powersets and tons of new tweaks (for everybody!).  We have new mission arcs aplenty.  The Paragon Market has basically everything free; the fact that you can no longer purchase points doesn't limit you here, and you can unlock whatever archetypes, costume pieces, powersets, and other content you missed on Live servers.  Even character slots are totally free, so you'll have no shortage of room for your precious toons.

Speaking of, you don't need to lose your old characters, or restart from scratch.  There is a transfer tool that will allow you to bring your characters, intact, over from the Live servers to Beta.  All you lose is your supergroup and task force, but that ain't hard to re-make over here.  Your original source characters remain on the Live servers, wholly and completely intact.  In addition, if you're a Premium or VIP on Live, you'll keep your status on Beta, too.  Heck, even if you do want to start from scratch, farming experience and levelling is no issue!  8-hour double experience boosters, and amplifiers of all kinds, are totally free here, so levelling is quick and painless.

As you know, there will be no further updates to the game unless the Save CoH initiative succeeds (I'm hoping and praying it does.)  In the meantime, why not enjoy the latest version of CoH available?  Anything to keep us playing right up until they kick us out the door, I say.

[Quinch]

I'd still be cool to get regular mini-rallies over there.

Just sayin'.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

I'd be happy to help out with rallies and vigils over here.  Beta would be a nice centralized place for all of us to gather - kinda symbolic too.  It's literally a playable glimpse of the future that would've been had NCSoft not shut us down.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Yeah, I copied Silver Spartan and Engine Jean over. See you in the City!

[downix]

I wish I could use Sentinel to grab folk from it.

[hurple]

I tried to copy a few over, but seem to get no response whatsoever... Should I get an acknowledgement that a toon has been copied?

[Moonfyire101]

but you can't copy over locked toons right?

[downix]

I copied over quite a few already.

[chaparralshrub]

We have our private servers ready? Already? Or am I missing what our 'beta' means?

[Victoria Victrix]

We have our private servers ready? Already? Or am I missing what our 'beta' means?

Alas no.  The Beta server is the alternate Test Server, generally open only to VIPs (Test is open to everyone).  I'm not sure if that is still true and the threw open Beta to everyone.  Someone tell him how to load Beta on his machine please?

Beta will presumably go down when the rest of the servers go down, Nov 30.

[Lily Barclay]

Pretty sure Beta is open to everyone now. It's just hard to set up from what I understand.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

It used to be you could just download it directly from the NCSoft launcher.  There was a CoH Subscriber Beta option.  Once you got it, you could just log in with your usual account credentials.  I don't know if the option to download the Subscriber Beta exists on the launcher any more.

I remember seeing a thread on the official boards explaining how to modify a regular install to access the I24 Beta.  I'm looking for it, and if nobody finds it before I do, I'll link it here.

EDIT: Okay, I can't find the post I'm thinking of, but this post states that if you make a copy of your CoH folder, and name it "CoHBeta", and run it, then the launcher should attempt to download the remaining files needed to update it to beta.

Once you have it, you can use the character copy tool here to copy a toon from a Live server to the Beta.

[Xenos]

Let me just add my voice to this...if you have not spend any time with i24, do yourself a favor and head over to the Beta server right now.

I spent the last few days playing on Beta...and if I was sad about COH closing down, I can't even begin to tell you how I feel about this version of it never getting seen by all. This is the best update EVER!

The changes to blasters are phenomenal. It is a total game changer. The change in the secondary power set makes them so much more survivable. Insta-snipe is fantastic. And don't even get me started on the crash-free nukes.

Great new missions. Even for low levels. The revamp of the Skull missions in KR have some amazing new gameplay dynamics. Undercover gang fights. Police raids. So much cool stuff. New Incarnate arc.

Sorcery Pool Power has a new travel power that combines flight and TP. 5th Power added to all Pool Powers. Power customization for Pool Power...yes, including Hasten!

And there's so much more...

The Dev's really did some fantastic work there. We should all do them the honor of spending some time with it before it all disappears.

See you on Beta!

[Ichaerus]

What about the option to be able to craft inventions/costume pieces?  I just found out the hard way that my license ran out about 3 minutes after I had purchased a Rocket Boots recipe and I was running to a crafting station.  Unfortunately, I'm 40 points shy of being able to get another license, so I'm screwed on that. :(

[Aggelakis]

The invention and auction licenses are 0pp on beta.

If you odn't have enough pp to purchase one on live, you're screwed. :( Sorry. :(

[The Fifth Horseman]

Should I get an acknowledgement that a toon has been copied?

Nope. The copy tool will no longer show the character as being copied and that's that.

It used to be you could just download it directly from the NCSoft launcher.  There was a CoH Subscriber Beta option.

Still there, just hidden.

Pretty sure Beta is open to everyone now.

It is.

[Codewalker]

Still there, just hidden.

I installed the NCSoft launcher on a fresh computer about 2 weeks ago, and COH Subscriber Beta was listed on the left under "Not Installed", along with City of Heroes.

It's possible they've changed it since then.

[eviella]

I've been spending most of my time on live with friends; as I've said before the loss of the community is what hurts far, far more than the loss of the game itself.

But late at night when it's quiet on the live servers I've slowly been exploring I24.  There's a lot of fun stuff there.

Do we have a chat channel we can use over there?  I don't see many people there, even on LFG.  But then again I'm normally around 1 AM pacific time so it wouldn't be busy at best.

[Kaiser Tarantula]

There's just not many people on.  Most folks haven't gotten the word about Beta, or refuse to leave Live, even for a moment.  Make some noise on LFG and the help channel, and you'll usually get a reply or two.  Heck, if I recognize you and I'm on, I'll speak up.  Look for Voidwalker or Kaiser Tarantula.

Keep in mind that if you copy over a toon, you lose nothing except your SG.  If you can convince all your SGmates and friends to come over, it should be easy to remake the SG.

[KnightHawk Prime]

It *is* easy to recreate your SG base. And it's a semi cheat, but you can copy a toon with a large amount of inf several times (Fyre'Fall, Fyre'Fall1 Fyre'Fall2 etc), and buy the prestige you need to make the base the way you want.

Gives your SG members a pleasant surprise when they transfer over expecting a MicroBase, and get a full sized, fully stocked base, with all the amenities, waiting for them to move in.

It's cheesy, but might as well, it's beta, and nothing can be transferred back to live *from* beta.

It also gave me the chance to play with the base editor on levels my SG's have rarely managed to get to on live, and the beta base was a *lot* of fun to build with an effectively unlimited budget.

See you on Beta.

2cp ;]